Update: Five new preview images and a trailer (which also includes new artwork) from September 29's Inferno #1 have been released by Marvel Comics, the debut of Jonathan Hickman's four-issue X-Men swan song to his House of X and Powers of X era.
Each 40-page issue of the series will be illustrated by a different artist beginning with SWORD's Valerio Schiti with issue #1.
The publisher promises the "high-stakes" drama will provide readers with a "startling payoff" to plotlines that have run through the titles since Hickman's 2019 revamp including Mystique's quest to be reunited with her wife Destiny, changes to the Quiet Council, and the looming presence of classic X-Men villain Nimrod.
Check out the trailer above and the new pages below and scroll down for even more information and images from Inferno.
Original story follows:
Jonathan Hickman's new X-Men series Inferno is coming into focus. Marvel Comics has released a variant cover to Inferno #1 by Stanley "Artgerm" Lau (seen above and fully below) along with new information about the "heartbreaking saga" and what it's calling a "day of reckoning" to mankind's leaders and "shocking pay-off" to Hickman's overarching storyline.
Inferno is a four-issue limited series written by Hickman with each 40-page issue illustrated by a rotating cast of artists beginning with Valerio Schiti (SWORD, Empyre), who the publisher describes being known for "masterfully depicting large-scale action alongside intense human drama..."
"There will be an island—not the first, but the last…" Those were Destiny's foreboding words she uttered to her wife Mystique at the beginning of Hickman's "age of Krakoa" revamp of the X-Men line. And it looks like the Marvel mutants will soon arrive that that moment.
According to Marvel, the series involves the promises both made and broken by the rulers of Krakoa to Mystique regarding her deceased wife Destiny and how the sometimes-hero/sometimes-villain isn't taking the broken parts sitting down.
They've strung her along and denied her desire to be reunited with Destiny for too long and now's she's ready to back up her threat to burn Krakoa to the ground.
Inferno seems to follow the themes Newsarama recently highlighted as the key to the immediate future of the X-Men titles and perhaps the identity of the murder victim (and real murderer) at the center of the upcoming The Trial of Magneto series.
According to the publisher, "Mutantkind's bright future is threatened like never before as Hickman brings his game-changing plans to a head."
Marvel says readers can expect more revelations "from the lives of Moira MacTaggert, Nimrod's revenge, vicious power plays, and more in this pivotal chapter in X-Men history."
"I'm very excited that we're finally getting to share with everyone the follow-up to House of X/Powers of X," Hickman says in Marvel's announcement. "The story is 160 pages over four issues drawn exquisitely by Valerio Schiti, R.B. Silva, and Stefano Caselli. I cannot wait for people to read it."
Artist Mark Brooks has created new teaser artwork for Inferno that is an homage to his own earlier House of X/Powers of X image, depicting all the major players of Krakoa as they "brace themselves for their biggest shakeup yet."
Marvel has also released "Trust No One" teaser images by series artist R.B. Silva that pay homage to house ads for 1989's original X-Men crossover Inferno and depict all the major players in the series.
The three images group Mystique, Moira MacTaggert, and Destiny as enemies who can't be trusted, Colossus, Psylocke, and Bishop as allies who can't be trusted, and Magneto, Emma Frost, and Xavier as leaders who can't be trusted.
The images will all be available as a variant cover to the debut issue.
Check out all the new teasers images in our gallery below.
Inferno already seems like it'll be a candidate to be added to Newsarama's list of the best X-Men stories of all time.
